GRAND VIZIER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 584, 9 February 1929, Page 19

GRAND VIZIER

ENGLISHMAN HOLDS 1 ROMANTIC POST WITH | SULTAN OF MUSCAT 1

ANOTHER “MYSTERY MAN” BKqUL 1 embers o£ the 8.0ya.1 Tfcjfjf Geographical Society, CilTlf] at a meeting in London recently, had the uuusual experience of a

lecture on unknown Arabia by the Grand Vizier to the Sultan of Muscat.

The Grand Vizier is one of the “mystery men” of Arabia —a young Englishman named Mr. Bertram Thomas, who went East during the war to fight and decided to stay there for fun. He became a political officer in the Euphrates, then Finance Minister to the Sultan of Muscat, and then his Prime Minister.

Mr. Thomas's hobby is exploratic and he gave an account of how h year he crossed 500 miles of desi

country renowned for its barbarism, and hitherto untrodden by Europeans. The region he crossed was the hinterland of the south-eastern end of the Arabian peninsula, from south of •Muscat to Durfar, on the Indian Ocean. This is part of the “empty quarter” Arabia, a place which is a name of error throughout the peninsula. •Nevertheless, lie travelled across it as a Bedouin, wearing the cos--1 lrne and speaking the language of the Mr. Thomas had a preliminy7. adven ture by going to see the * niir at Bani Bu Ali, where no Eurohad been for nealy 100 years, he Amir was friendly, but was very oatil £o a How him to gather together o£ Arabs and camels to cross - desert. It took a week of arguent h> get: his consent. At the outet of the journey a community of breeders was found. They lived w elhng{s of acacia-thatch, scarcely the name of huts, with a w ate:r-skins hung on tree ranches, and baskets of dates higher ■JL? ut of reach of the camels.